The Construction Site Has Gone through a Big Change.

Last week, when I went up to put in the service entry wire the site had trenches dug all over the place. The walkout walls were still open on the back side, there was a trench to the well, for the electrical service and there was still a pile of dirt in front of the house. Its amazing what a week can bring.

This has been a busy last few days in that Johnny's completed the initial plumbing work, Rick's Pump Service ran the lines and wiring for the well-cistern-house water piping and there were a couple of inspections; state plumbing and electrical.

After all of that was completed Tim came back in and backfilled EVERYTHING, he also leveled the area around the house and set a number of big rocks along the outside edge of the driveway. The area in front of the house will ultimately be a concrete patio colored to match the surrounding ground. It looks really good.

My 86 (87 next month) year old Dad, Tom Caulfield, was in town over the weekend for Derek's Graduation, he was with us when we went up yesterday. Graduation was Thursday afternoon at Coors Amphitheater. It was easily in the high eighties and the sun was in our faces for the entire 3 hours we were out there (read sunburn).

We are real proud of Derek who graduated with an Honor Cord from the National Art Honor Society.

He leaves for Italy next week for about 10 days and will be attending Western State College in Gunnison next August.

It has been two years since the last time my Dad visited and as he mentioned last time, as now, that it is hard to really understand the scope of the area just seeing it in photographs. Maybe we can talk him into visiting again this year when the house is done. that's him walking trough the area of the prow.

The white pipes that you see sticking up are the drain plumbing that will end up under the concrete slab floor. They are all capped for now and will be trimmed to length when the rough plumbing is done after the framing is completed.

We did a couple of test ourselves while there; one was to park the truck in the garage and the other was to look at the south wall for the location of the back bedroom window.

The truck fit fine.

Still unsure about the bedroom window, but that will be looked at on Tuesday. It could mean some work with a concrete saw before the framing.

We are doing pretty good on the work that needs to be done before framing can begin. The last item is the concrete work, meaning the slab and the deck footings. In talking with Tim it sounds like that will be done the end of next week. This should keep us on schedule to start the framing on June 5.

I know many folks think that I am nuts to be looking at the schedule so closely, but I just like to know when I am behind the power curve, and if so how much, and why. For those keeping score, we are 14 days behind right now. This is almost entirely due to additional time taken up in the design stage. BUT, if we make the framing start date on June 5 we will be back on the timeline set last November.

I heard an interesting comment on an edition of "This Old House" this morning. Kevin the host said of a project that had just finished framing, "that it would be done in no time", and Tom Silva said that once framed, a project was only 1/3 done, and the final 2/3's takes a lot more time to complete. Well, we haven't even gotten to that point, so it will be a interesting summer. The days and weeks seem to be flying by since we started and I hope we can keep the momentum as we get into the body of the build.

Next weekend we will be chipping up the tree that were cut for the house clearing and removing the "doghouse from the well head. A couple of folks have tried to pull it off and someone finally succeeded in breaking the high quality "through the top" plumbing I had installed back in '99. Lucky for us Mike Sellen, across the way, came over and fixed it before we even knew there was a problem. Thanks, Mike we owe you one. Autumn Creek really is made up of a great group of people.

Which Floor?

Here are the two floors that we are looking at for the all areas of the house that will have HW flooring. There are both Maple and will be 5" wide planks. This will be an engineered HW floor in that it will have several layers with the wood in different grain directions so that it will be dimensionally stable, e.g. no gaps in the winter. We are also going for a distressed look which is more rustic in appearance and should hide any gouges and marks. Even though it is engineered and prefinished the floor has the same refinishing ability as a solid wood plank.

So which one do you like?

Number 1:













or

Number 2:

Electrical service entry and water lines going in.

This is going to be a busy week!

Over the weekend I placed the electrical service (0000 URD) entry cabling and telephone drop in the trench Tim dug after a two hour ordeal at Home Depot getting the materials. Their price was $2.36/ft vs. $4.12 at the electrical supply house, at 200' this adds up.

Rick's Pump Service will also be up tomorrow to place the water lines and wiring from the well head to the future cistern location and then back to the house entry in the back walkout wall. Tim also dug a trench around the house for this which goes right up to the well casing so that a pitless adapter can be installed. The pitless adapter will allow the water to come out of the well at 60" below grade. This will be below the frost line.

Johnny's Plumbing will also be out on Monday to do the underslab plumbing in prep for the floor slab to be laid later this week or next.

There will be two inspections this week, both by the state (vs. the county). On Monday, the state Electrical Inspector will come out to check the service entry placement before it can be buried. They will be checking that it is at least 24" deep and that the "Danger Buried Live Wire" tape is there for burial 12" above the cable. That way if someone digs here in the future (without getting a buried wire inspection) they should hit this red tape before the 200 amp 220 volt service line.

On Tuesday, the state Plumbing Inspector will be out to check that underslab plumbing is good to go before the slab is laid. They will be checking for leaks via a pressure test among other things.

Last week, Tim hooked up the septic tank line to the sleeve going through the frost wall footing, so that part of the infrastructure should be ready to go.

The floor and outside of the walkout walls has now been covered in red gravel and leveled. The mound of dirt in front of the house is down to a small pile, which will ultimately be leveled into the patio area outside of the walkout.

Sorry I forgot the camera so no new picture. We will be going back up next weekend so look for some updated pics then.

Schedule Update

The pre-delivery part of the build schedule is getting down tothe last few steps. If everyone/thing continues as planned, by the time the materials are delivered and David Jones and crew show up we will have narrowed the timeline gap to 4 days. Knock on wood.

Again, move your mouse over the image and an expand icon should appear or download and zoom.

Waterproofing and French Drain Done

I ran up to Pinon Rock on Tuesday night to get a start on the waterproofing and French Drain installation bright and early. The mid-week trip was needed to stay on schedule for the material delivery and framing start-up on June 5.

I stopped at Home Depot in the Springs on way down and picked up another 100' of drain tubing, which was smart, because when I got there I saw that Tim Longsdon had been in and dug the drain out through the driveway.

Tim is the the kind of sub you want working with you, as I called him Monday night to give him the latest schedule and he was ready with suggestions in how we could work through all of the steps we needed to complete in the next couple of weeks. AND he was there this morning at 8am to make sure we were both on the same page, AND he suggested snapping chalk lines for the waterproofing. He seems to think a number of steps ahead of me, which I believe will make a big difference once the house starts to frame up and the site gets crowded.

Tim is going to run the sewage line to the septic system tomorrow. He also had me call Rick's Pump Service about getting the water line and wiring layed before he backfills around the walkout walls. I had been wondering when we were going to do this and if I might be trenching the same trench twice. So then we will be set for the pitless adapter installation, and cistern with a keep full float system to be installed once the house is weathered in.

Tim will also do the backfill on the floor to get things ready for the plumbers on Monday.

Emily at Johnny's Plumbing (she is a gem to work with also) has scheduled the underslab pumping work for Monday (5/22), with the State inspection on Tuesday or Wednesday. This should set up well for Tim to get back in week after next to pour the slab and deck piers.

Back to the waterproofing. Doesn't seem to require a lot of skill, as I seemed to accomplish it in about 3 hours. I did have to cover a couple of places twice as the concrete had some type of form release (concrete PAM?) on it, that caused some lifting of the waterproofing material.

I over estimated the amount I needed by two pails (10 gal), which I figure was due to computing the step down wall as a rectangle and the margin from the top of the walls to conceal the waterproofing below the final grade. This was important because I wanted to make sure that my application rate met the specs on the product.

Now the real dirt on the waterproofing. I knew going in this was going to be messy, but I had no idea. I wore disposable coveralls over my clothes and heavy duty latex gloves to control the clean-up...Yah right. By the time I was done my gloves had to a great extent become glued to the extension pole on the roller (that whole application rate thing sounded pretty good right up to now) and the coveralls were useless as the asphalt waterproofing went right through them.

So picture this, I am in a trench 2-3' wide and 3' to 7' feet deep with dirt piled high on the outside. The sun is out and blazing (remember this is 8400' MSL) and I realize that bees seem to be attracted to this stuff. Oh yah, there is NO wind, breeze, etc., so the fumes from the asphalt is sitting in the trench with me.

By the time I was done, nauseousness had pretty much set in, I was sunburned and probably dehydrated, because I didn't want to take off the grimy, gummy, smelly gloves to open a bottle of water during this whole ordeal.

But wait, I wasn't done. Now I got to wrangle 100' lengths of 4" diameter stiff plastic tubing into this trench. I am sure there is an "approved" way of doing this, but I missed that life lesson. On the first roll I thought I could lay it out straight and then pull it in. Nice idea, but houses have corners and this stuff didn't want to go around them without personal coaxing from the crew. Did I mention the crew was Pat, and his merry band of man, "count off, one, all here". So it was back and forth moving this 100' inchworm around the house.

Being the smart guy I am. I deduced that there had to be a better way. So with the next roll I thought I would roll it out in the trench. These are rolls about 3' thick and 4' in diameter and remember the trench is 2-3' wide. So now instead of the inchworm, it was python rass'lin.

I had by this point sweated through clothes, overalls, but not the gloves. I was surprised that sweat didn't pour out of them when I would lift my hands, they were that squishy.

SO finally the two ends were brought together in some type of unholy union using a connector that I luckily picked up last night.

Now I would get the opportunity to go back over the entire 200' of French Drain and cover it in water permeable cloth to keep dirt from clogging the slits in the drain pipe. Of course these rolls were 4' wide and by now the floor of the trench was getting pretty crowded with the goopy puddles of waterproofing that didn't make the wall, the drain pipe and moi (French Drain). When (not if) I touched the wall the stuff would leave a asphalt kiss. When (again not if) I would touch the dirt side of the trench a little shower of dirt would rain down, normally this would be down my collar, via my back and directly deposited in my shorts. Yah, I was ready for this to be over, but it wasn't.

Did you know that acetone will not remove asphalt. But it sure opens the pores so that when you put goof-off on (which does remove the asphalt) you get a real nice burning stinging sensation. No matter how you try you end up cleaning everything 2, no 3 , I lost count and gave up. I still had some on my face when I got home this evening.

Enough for tonight. On to the next adventure in house build!

We have Walkout Walls.

The foundation scare turned out to be for not. Pat Thomas lasered the footing layout, again, and it was within 1/8" of the design.

When we arrived on Saturday morning, Pat and his crew were taking down the forms. The concrete was very "green" in that it was the dark gray and looked moist. It will need to be a light gray before the next step can start, but more on that later. It took the crew about three hours to complete the teardown and then they were off to another place. Pat did have time to give me the bill. He came in at his bid with no extras.

Marlys and I delivered the porta potty on Saturday, starting what will probably be an every two week rotation for the next 6 months. This was none to soon as we had an incident that would make a great episode on the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs". Marlys was damn proud of her ability to move the crapper around with her developing new muscles.

Next Steps.

The next two and half weeks are going to be hectic with the house and Derek's high school graduation on the 26. It was all the makings for a little stress session.

The next major milestone will be the delivery of materials and David Jones crew moving in to start the framing. The day we are targeting is June 5. Two weeks from tomorrow.

This is what has to happen between now and then:

1. I need to waterproof the walkout walls and place the french drain.
2. Tim Longsdon needs to cover the french drain in gravel.
3. Tim needs to backfill the floor and the frost wall.
4. Johnny's Plumbing needs to complete the underslab plumbing placement and get it inspected.
5. Tim needs to form and lay the slab and backfill the walkout walls.

I am currently the long pole in the tent (meaning holding everything up). I am going to try and get up there on Wednesday, and do the waterproofing and drain placement.

I gotta tell you though, seeing the walkout walls up really makes the progress very visible. We are no longer digging into the ground, but coming out of it. No longer is the house just lines on a drawing or a lists of parts and prices. It is a now a "thing" that you can put your hands on and feels it mass and permanence.

Bit of a Scare on the Foundation Yesterday

Yesterday afternoon Neal (Castle Timber Homes) sent me an email after he had made his weekly inspection. He was concerned that a pad footing was not located correctly in the garage, but the biggy was that one of the footings for the prow appeared to be ~1 foot off the plan specs.

Neal had called Pat Thomas about the variance, which was great, but the Inspector was on the way up and the walls were scheduled to be poured today at 1:30. Neal didn't seem worried, but I was and by the time we got home I had a pretty good stress headache going. If the foundation wasn't right....well IT IS the foundation of the house. It seemed as if an issue that one of our neighbors experienced, and we had said we specifically we would keep an eye on, could
hit us too.

We had measured the OVERALL dimensions on Sunday and they were correct. BUT we had not measured every dimension against the plan. The architect Le Corbusier supposedly said "God is in the details"(glass half full), and is that ever true.

Pat (Tomas Construction) called this afternoon, to say all was well, they found the issue and corrected it before the wall pour. He reported that everything looked good and we should have a good pour this afternoon. Pat and his crew will be removing the forms on Saturday, then their work will be done.

The Sport Clutch Episode

This entry is for those of you following my issues with the sport clutch installation on the Porsche.

The issue was that the clutch was very binary in operation, but was not slipping as you would expect a worn clutch. The clutch only had 30K miles on it.

I took it in to Eurosports Ltd. two weeks ago to have the hydraulic system checked, thinking there may have been some air in it. But that wasn't it. So Orrin, removed the engine (to get at the clutch) and low and behold found the problem.

When the sport clutch had been installed, the dealership put in the wrong pressure plate, reducing the available effective pedal travel. Of course over the 30K miles driven in this condition the clutch plate was shot, so a new clutch kit need to be installed. The C4 is now back to a standard clutch and is a pleasure to drive.

But with the anticipated move to the new house, with its 12 miles of gravel road, I will be selling it during the coming months. So if you know anyone interested in a pristine 1991 Porsche 911 C4 (All wheel drive 964) with 66K miles, 17" Cup Wheels, teardrop mirrors, 10 disc CD changer, all power in Guards Red with a tan leather interior, have them give me a call.

It has never been raced, but two years ago Marlys and I entered it in a rally, where I drove (of course) and Marlys was the navigator. Now you are probably think this is a recipe for divorce, but after the first hour when we both realized we had no idea what we were doing, it became a lot of fun. Needless to say by the end of the day we had a lock on last place. The moral of the story was that it really helps to read the directions on HOW to read the directions before entering a rally.

Footings are in. Wall forms taking shape.

This weekend we saw substantial changes in the hole...its starting to fill up with "stuff".

We though it looked pretty neat to see something actually starting to take shape when we got there on Friday afternoon. 24 hours later the site had gone through another highly visible change.

Seems like we are making progress, but as we get further along the more we realize the road is getting longer. For every step, two seem to get added to the route, with much navigation needed in making the right decisions along the way.

Tim finished the footing dig. But he will be back in another week to start the backfilling, so that the underslab work can be completed by Johnny's Plumbing. Then he will be pouring the slabs and the deck post footings using "bigfoot" forms.

You can't see all of the footing in the picture because they are at different depths depending on where they are at, e.g the footing on the front of the house are three feet deeper and will support the frost wall on the walkout side of the basement. The footing in the middle of the house will take the load transfers from the glulam beams in the main floor roof. They will be transferred down large wood post that will be on the backside of the staircase.

Pat Tomas and his crew tore down the footer forms and started putting in the basement wall forms during the day on Saturday. Luckily the wet weather let up for them.

The blue line I am pointing two will be the grade line for the basement (9').

Virgil and I watched Pat back the trailer up with the forms all the way from Autumn Creek drive, past the "Summer Encampment", all the way to the building site...at speed, without doing the trailer tango that I "practice" just backing up ten feet. This is a good 600-700'.

They plan on finishing the forms early next week, and have the second concrete inspection on Wednesday. The pour will be that day too. The forms will be taken down next weekend. Then Pat's job is done. The it will be time for Marlys and I to waterproof and set the French Drain.

The Ufer Ground, I mentioned last week, turned out to be a length of rerod that is connected to the steel in the footer, but sticks out of the wall next to where the electrical distribution panel will be placed. Scott (Bright Light Electric) was on vacation this week, so I made a GC decision and decided to put it in the garage.

We also met with Carol out design/color consultant and picked out the "stick'em stone and house exterior color. Carol has the exterior color as a "cinnamon" and the stone will be multi-colored. Along with the green roof it will look great. One item she moved us away from was putting too many colors on the exterior. Where we were thinking three (body & two trim) colors, Carol has suggested only a green fascia with the window, door trim and siding being cinnamon and then the multi-color "Bodega Bluffstone " from Eldorado Stone. The look should be complimentary to the site without disappearing or being to busy looking.

Johnny Sr. also gave me some sleeve material for Pat and Juan to insert through the basement walls for sewage, water and electrical access. It looks like regular white schedule 40 tubing. I am still not sure how the sewage lines will be routed to the sewage sleeve, but that is what Johnny's Plumbing will figure out. This too is different then in the more northerly areas where the utilities come up through the floor slab to keep it from freezing. Here they will actually come through the basement wall.

We also talked with Johnny Sr. about changing the supply side piping from copper to plex. There are pros/cons to both, but with wellwater reactivity, the ability to take a freeze and the quiet nature of plex is pushing us in that direction. Johnny said that is what he would put in if he was building a house. We will need to decided on making that change this week.

We also did the preliminary selection of the plumbing fixtures. We will probably have to re-look at that once we get the price sheet. Seems as if everything was made by a manufacturer I had never heard of, e.g. expensive. I have a problem blowing the budget on a crapper.

Still can't get these poor guys a porta potty until next weekend.